As EA’s first basketball game on the N64, this isn’t the disaster that FIFA 64 was, but it also doesn’t come close to FIFA 98, resulting in a game that’s just passable.

The menu for this one is quite odd, starting you off with choosing an exhibition match and the options are off to the side. You can change rules settings (including letting you tackle opponents) and there’s a very limited create a player option.

The game feels very clunky. There’s some interesting ideas with the controls – such as holding R to activate a mode where you can pass to a player of your choice with the C-buttons, but passing and shooting don’t feel smooth. It’s not atrocious, it just doesn’t feel very good.

The graphics are similar. The court itself looks very nice, but the players are hideous with broken-looking limbs and extremely boxy.

With NBA Courtside around, this can just be ignored.

Poor

The graphics are clean, crisp, and gloriously free of fuzz, but, rather disappointingly, play host to the Incredible Stick Men. Jerkily skipping from one end of the court to the other, their anorexic and inscect-like limbs are more suited to the undernourished characters that invariable populate awkwardly animated PC games. Like Sunny Delight, they’re simply unconvincing and, well, unnatural.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #24. Review Score: 64%

Remake or remaster?

Sports games had already evolved when this game was released.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NBA Live 99